Another night with no furry visitors, nice! I had 27 miles to get to the road that leads to Grant Village where I could stay in their big campground without having an advanced permit. I got going early and again the morning was bitter with frost. And what greeted me first thing? A nice cold river crossing…it was too wide and deep to have any rocks to hop across, and I couldn’t imagine soaking my shoes so early in the shadows of the day, so I put on my chacos and WOOOOO that was cold!

I immediately switched to shoes and socks on the other side, but it took a good bit before I could feel my toes again. Feels like fall. On the good side this frost helps kill off the mosquitos, on the bad side, it seems too early for fall.

The morning’s hike took me along several river canyons which would have been spectacular packrafting waterways with more H20, but unfortunately the park has banned packrafting. (see http://forrestmccarthy.blogspot.com/2013/06/packrafting-guide-to-yellowstone.html?m=1 for more info…it would be an amazing opportunity to paddle the park!! I support a free Yellowstone)

The afternoon I walked the shores of Heart Lake, but the view was mostly of the trees that lined the shores, kind of boring, but later I was able to walk the shore for a while. I’m kicking myself that I didn’t throw down my pack and go for a swim; the temperature of the water was perfect! As soon as I left the lake the afternoon sun seemed to get hotter and I regretted my passing up the swim.

Soon after I met some more hikers, Flamingo, who was a southbounder, and Grimm, a flip flopper. Then I met two more: Guy on a Buffalo & Wanderer (who had hiked the PCT last year and I had screenprinted his shirt “hikertrash” at PCT days last September…and he’s wearing that shirt on the trail! Cool!!!!!!)

I hiked up and found my first boiling pools of sulfur smelling water! I’m in Yellowstone!

The pools continued and I hoofed it up a short climb before a nice flat bit of hiking where I met yet three more flip floppers: Nom nom, Apache, and Mehap. It looked like they were all having fun hiking together.

I was close to the highway, I could hear it…and you know what that means…Grant Village, cold soda and hot food!

I immediately got a ride from a nice dude and his friends out from Boston for the week and soon I was getting a campsite and wandering over to the land of ice cream and clean tourists.

As I was eating my strawberry cheesecake waffle cone, I decided to forgo the grill which offered mostly burgers and go to the restaurant.

I got trout and really relished the fancy dinner as I hoped I didn’t smell too much.

Then back to camp where a group of near-by teens were blasting some terrible pop music. Makes me feel old…turn that down eh!

I have to keep all my food and smellables in a bear box tonight, but the previous campers spilled coffee grounds all over the picnic table and ground, and there’s lots of crusty food debris as well…so much for keeping a clean camp!

Everything was covered in frost when I woke up. Brrrrr.

Scatman and I packed up and started hiking, getting warm was a priority, and for one of the first times on the trail I started hiking in my down jacket. Is fall coming already???

We soon met some thru-hikers…Beads and Kramers were coming down the hill right after (oooo, forgetting his name) and we had to stop for something like half an hour and fill each other in on our respective hikes. I hadn’t seen Kramers since soaking in the Gila Hotsprings, and this was the first time I was meeting Beads, but Scatman had met her before. It was hard to say goodbye, but eventually we started hiking again, only to run into 2 more hikers right behind them…I guess we found the herd!

Beads, Scatman & Kramers

The big excitement of the day was getting to 2 Oceans Pass where there was the parting of the river. Yep, half of the river flows over 3,000 miles to the Atlantic, the other half over 1,000 miles to the Pacific. Very cool. I filled my water from the Pacific side (hey, it’s my side of the country) and we prepared ourself for the last big climb for a while.

Parting of the waters!

Huffing and puffing the 2,000′ up to the top of the ridge was a sweaty affair, but so worth it on the top when we were awarded a view back to the Winds, over to the Tetons, and ahead to Yellowstone. We’d reach Yellowstone today!

I convinced Scatman to try napping over a long lunch (at only 23 miles to hike today we could relish some long breaks) and I enjoyed a bit of service on my phone as I lay in a field of flowers. Ahhh, this is how I like to hike.

The afternoon went down, down, down into some meadows and the trail showed lots of traces of bear…big ‘ol piles of scat littered the tread, but our talking was successful at keeping them away. I’ll happily make lots of noise so I don’t have to confront a grizz.

Late afternoon we got to the Yellowstone border! We saw some folks at the ranger station, so walked over there to check it out. A park trail crew had just arrived and were unloading their pack donkeys into the cabin. We chatted with them for a while, then I said goodbye to Scatman who had a permit for a camp a few miles into the park. I backtracked a bit so I was outside the border and found a spot in the woods. I wasn’t too far from where the donkeys were put out to pasture, which was a good thing because they had bear bells on and I figured the bells would help keep any bears away during the night.

I cowboy camped for the first time in a long time…since I was sleeping thick in the trees I figured the frost wouldn’t be too bad.

A bit ‘o reading, and then my eyes became very heavy…

I woke in the early morning to go the bathroom and saw stars out, the storm had passed! I made coffee and packed up, making my way to the main lodge by about 6:30 to start the last few miles of my highway walk before I headed up to the trail.

It was a cold morning and I was all bundled up. There wern’t too many cars on the road, and it turned out to only be a little over two miles I had to walk to get onto Brooks Lake road…I played a few new podcasts that had come recommended from Buck 30 and Treeboo…Lore, Welcome to Nightvale, Nerdist.

I got to the lake and noted all the signs warning of grizzly in the area, they sure know how to scare you, and probably for good reason, there were plenty of tracks in the mud as I walked north on the trail.

At one point I look behind me to see a figure in black walking up and it turned out to be Scatman…it would be nice to have company through this bear territory, even if for a little bit.

We talked and talked and the miles, while full of ups and downs, went fairly smoothly until we took lunch at a creek and upon packing up I noticed we were 1.6 miles off trail. Doh! Somehow we missed a trail junction.

Bushwhacking back, we found the trail again, and made sure not to get off again. Most of these junctions are not marked and you really have to pay attention to each turn.

The mountains around here are craggy and sharp, and the cold of the morning finally seemed to dissapate in the bluer sky of the afternoon.

Scatman is a fast hiker, but I decided to keep pace with him…he’s got a permit for a campsite in Yellowstone tomorrow, but I only have to do 23 to camp outside the park border in order to day hike to Grants Village inside the park. I haven’t arranged for a permit ahead of time so I can’t camp legally inside the park, but I can legally day hike, and that means a 27 mile day after tomorrow. Anyway, so this would probably be my one day to hike with him before we both go our separate ways.

It was a long day, and by the time we found a spot to camp it was 8:30. Tired!

Waking up in another hotel bed seems like a common way I’ve been starting a lot of posts lately, but what can I say…the time off the trail is as good as the time on the trail….and as far as hanging out with other hikers goes, town seems to be one of the only times I get to see other hikertrash.

This morning I woke and started packing up, no lingering in the room for me, I had to get to the health clinic to get myself checked out, resupply, and get back on the trail. I walked to the south side of town and fortunately they were able to see me rather quickly. The staff were definitely familiar with travelers (Dubois is very close to Yellowstone) and before I knew it I had some antibiotics and was on my way back to town.

I found Buck 30 still at the hotel room, and we both headed over to the grocery store to resupply and then to the near-by cafe to have lunch before sticking out our thumbs. Before we even got two blocks down the street (hitching in the town of Dubois is illegal so we were walking to the outskirts of the city) a guy called to us and asked if we wanted a ride…ummmm, yes! Very, very nice since we were expecting it to be a hard hitch.

As Ron drove us back to the trail I found out he had recently returned from the Peace Corps in Kenya…you really never know what kind of connections you will find out here! We had only driven a few miles when the sky opened up and started raining and hailing so hard that we had to pull over, the highway practically impossible to see. Buck 30 and I looked at eachother, were we really going to hike in this????? Yikes. The forcast is COLD and heavy rain…oh joy.

We got back on the road when the storm cleared up a bit, but there was lightening all around. Not going to be a fun afternoon.

I got dropped off on the highway where I hitched from yesterday, put on my rain gear and started walking the 5 or so miles up to where I would pick up the trail. The wind was pushing me around and it sprinkled off and on, although there were a few sucker holes I was able to walk under for a while.

When I saw a cluster of buildings and a sign for a restaurant it didn’t take me but a minute to head over in search of a hot drink. It had started to rain again and I thought I could at least wait out this bout with some shelter over my head.

I got a hot cup of cider and sat on the front porch…a few minutes passed and I thought it wouldn’t hurt to ask how much the rooms were at Lava Mountain Lodge. $25!!!!! done. I rack up another 2 mile day, but it was so worth it, the rain (and SNOW in the higher elevations), high wind, and lightening would have made the rest of the day pretty crummy.

Scott at the front desk told me there was another hiker in the cabins, so I stopped by on my way to my spot to find Scatman, the hiker I had met back in Colorado going south (flipping), and who was now headed north! I sat down and before I knew it hours had passed and we had talked the afternoon away. It really has been wonderful to be around other hikers the past 2 days.

We had dinner in the restaurant and by the time we were done it was bitter outside, and I was seeing photos on instagram of snow on the trail ahead. SNOW in July! Fortunately the forcast is due to clear up after tomorrow, but as I type this the rain is pouring down and I am warm and dry inside. This is the best $25 I’ve spent on the trail so far. No brutality for me tonight!

I didn’t sleep well last night, which has fortunately not been happening very much since the beginning of the trail…no matter, I made some coffee and read a bit of my e-book (another of Paul Theroux’s books, a new collection of short stories) and waited until the day was a bit lighter to pack up and hike the few miles to the highway.

Good morning

The morning was COLD and I slowly watched the sun warm the land behind me, but the spot i was hitching from would remain in the shadows for a while. It was early on a Sunday morning and there just wasn’t much traffic heading towards Dubois. I finally got a ride from the host of Brooks Lake Lodge, a spot I would be hiking by in a few days.

She dropped me off in the middle of town, and I headed to the Cowboy Cafe for a bit of breakfast and to figure out the day. After my pesto and eggs I met Benjamin, the first real southbounder I’ve met so far, he informed me Buck 30 should be in town today…I was stoked to catch up with him, we first met on the Appalachian Trail 13 years ago, and he has done a good job of making backpacking a priority over the years and has racked up something like 25,000 miles! He found me at a coffee shop across the way, and we talked the talk of most thru-hikers, trail conditions, hiker gossip, other hikes we’d like to do, etc.

The three of us headed down to the Wind River Motel where we got rooms for the night, and then we spent the afternoon scraping off the dirt in the shower, laying around watching cable, and sitting on the front stoop just hanging. I met Treebo who was another flip-flopper, and after dinner (again at the Cowboy Cafe) we saw a whole crew of hikers arriving….Carrot, Spark, Track Meat, and #2 who I hadn’t seen since Durango! I thought he was in front of me, but he had gotten off for a week to go home for a visit.

No trip to Dubois is complete without a ride on the giant jackalope

We didn’t hang out too long, my incredibly full stomach required me to get horizontal in my room. Tomorrow morning I’ll head to the health clinic to see about what is going on in my gut. I felt ok today, but that has been one of the main issues, the coming and going of my stomach pain…I’m still convinced something may be living in my belly.

You just never know where a day will take you out here. You may remember I’ve been having some stomach issues, if I’m honest with myself I’ve known something has been off for a while. Possibly for a long while. I haven’t really developed the hiker hunger, sure on days I feel like I can eat anything and everything, but that’s actually been fairly infrequent. I’ve only gone into town having eaten all my food once, ONCE! In over 3 months! And I’ve had trouble eating a full meal in town sometimes. Isn’t that crazy? Who has ever heard of a thru-hiker that couldn’t eat a whole meal? I’m embarrassed to say I left fries on my plate in Pinedale. Anyway, since I haven’t had any other symptoms I just haven’t been thinking too much about it, other than the fact that I’ve lost quite a bit of weight. But yesterday and today when I had to dig a hole (I’ll spare you the gory details), I could tell something wasn’t right. Perhaps I’ve had guardia or something for a long time and it’s just now acting up? I know the body can get used to the parasite; when I lived in Africa for the Peace Corps I ended up getting guardia about 5 times, and the last time I had no other symptoms other than one sulfer burb…so time to take some action I thought.

I had a pleasent morning of walking through big open parks…we are in cow country again and they were everywhere. I ran into another flip-flopper, Cathy, who had received a warning the night before about the active grizzleys and wolves in the area, dude! I would not have thought this landscape was grizz and wolf territory, but I was super cautious to make lots of noise the rest of the day.

After lunch when I discovered all was not well with my bowl output, I reevaluated how I would get to the next highway and to my next town, Dubois, a 38 mile hitch from Togwotee Pass. If I did a 30 today and a 20 tomorrow I could make it to the pass, or I could check out some alternates. The Ley maps have a ton of alternates, and as I was trying to determine my options, an ATVer came along and suggested taking a road behind Fish Lake that would get me to the highway where I could hitch, he thought it was maybe 20ish miles from where we were, a lot less than the 35ish I would still have to go on the CDT, and if I walked roads I would have a chance of getting help from a car if I needed it.

The stomach was wierd. I would feel fine, and then have a pain, the feel fine, then not fine. I really didn’t eat much today, don’t have an appitite, something must be wrong! Thru-hikers need to eat! Thru-hikers want to eat!

Fortunately I had downloaded the area topo on my Trimble Navigator App, and was able to find a good route…there were quite a few ATVers out, and had a couple offers of rides, but I felt ok to walk, and if I hitched from out here it would be next to impossible to get back to connect my steps. I needed to get to the highway.

The walking was easy on the roads, and there was plenty of water. I walked and walked until I could see and hear the highway, I’m on a ledge overlooking a stunning valley, and will walk the last few miles to the road in the morning and then hitch into Dubois where I’ll go to their medical clinic.

I’ll have to come back to this spot and walk the highway up to where I can reconnect with trail tread, but as you all know, I’m no stranger to highway walking, it’s all part of embracing the brutality.

I slept well on top of the pass. Today I would go down, down, down quite a ways to the Green River & Lakes…and boy was it a beautiful walk.

The water took on an icy bluish tint thanks to all the glacial silt in the water, but the color! I’ve never seen anything like it!

And that continued to the lakes, the view is just one of the best out here, and some lucky folks can drive in and bring their boats, there’s a campground on the far end of the bigger lake, and as I skirted it I thought breifly about trying to find a soda, but then kept on walking.

There was a lot of climbing this afternoon, and the landscape changed suddenly.

This is beautiful too, it’s all so diverse out here.

More rain tonight. What’s up with all the rain?

Rain during the night. So much rain always, the divide has had the wettest spring/summer ever. Ever on record. Wet feet for days.

This would be the day to hike the stunning and challenging Knapsack Col route in the Winds, but with the heavy dark clouds and wet morning, I decided against the alternate. Regular ‘ol CDT for me today.

The moody sky put me in a contemplative state, today I mainly just walked and the day happened. Oh, but the landscape was stunning. And i narrowly missed getting hit by an errant lightening strike. That will get the blood flowing!

These mountains and lakes and endless vistas remained from start to finish today, and I’m perched on the edge of a pass into a dramatic canyon, it will be a good day of walking tomorrow!

The mosquitos are swarming me right now, I’m in my bug netting, but it’s starting to feel a little closterphobic, knowing they all would attack me if given the chance.

I made camp early again, partly because of the view, partly because I need to slow down a bit. I have the opportunity to attend the summer Outdoor Retailer show in Salt Lake City in 2 weeks, and in order to make the logistics work, don’t have to do more than 20 miles a day! I think that might be hard to do once the miles get a bit easier (tomorrow?) but we’ll see, if I have some extra time maybe I’ll check out the Tetons! I have to figure out my Yellowstone strategy soon, I’ll be there this week and there are some permitting issues to figure out.

The map shows me about 2/3 done with Wyoming, cant believe it’s going this fast!

Oooo, so close to 1700 miles for my day 100! And what a day 100 it was. I woke a few times during the night in my urban camping experience, but when I rolled over, the next time I woke up it was 7am. I’ve been sleeping later and later recently…not a big deal to wake up at a certain time out here, especially on a town day!

I pack up and upon reaching the main street noticed a diner just down the way with a ton of cars outside…that’s always a good sign, especially when entering and seeing mostly locals, I like those kind of places.

I sat down at the bar and ordered a pancake breakfast and was soon joined by Vaun, an old timer who had lived in the surrounding area for most of his life. We had a good time chatting about bears, hiking, camping, and more, and towards the end of the meal when I made a trip to the bathroom, came back to find him gone but my bill paid! Wow, so nice!!!! Thanks Vaun!

From there I went to the post office to pick up the food I had bounced from Lander (you remember all those care packages? I couldn’t carry all that during the last stretch, so sent half of it ahead after sharing some with the other hikers; I won’t need to buy much here to make it another stint down the trail!

Then I had to check out the aquatic center I had heard so much about. For $5 you get access to the huge beautiful facility for the whole day. I didn’t really gravitate towards the fitness classes or the weight room…the hot tub is what I had my eye on. I took a long luxurious shower (in some of my clothes…might as well get them clean too!) and then jumped in the hot tub. Mint. Then a swim in the pool and a trip around the lazy river. I had my eye on the water slides, but decided to give them a pass and went back to the hot tub where I had a nice conversation with a few local ladies. Then back to the shower and to the lobby where I enjoyed a few cups of hot cider and tapped into their wifi for a little blogging action and some general web surfing. Very niiiice!

I spent a little time on the patio repacking my food bag and pack, and then headed towards lunch…pizza! My go-to town meal. If I order a large pizza, eat half for lunch, then I can pack the other half out to the trail, cold pizza on the trail? Don’t mind if I do!

After that I went to the grocery store, my list wasn’t long: 4 breakfast & wetwipes (wetwipes are GOLD on the trail). While I was there I ran into Smiles, who I had been in touch with for a ride back to the trail in a few hours, but really, all my town chores were done, so we made arrangements to go back after I was done shopping.

She had decided to go up for a hike since she was driving up to the trailhead, and we had a great time chatting…she was from Portland until just a few weeks ago when she moved to Pinedale to work as a wilderness ranger in the Winds! Cool job! Since she had just hiked the CDT last year we had a lot to talk about, and the 3 miles from the parking lot went quick with trail talk and a lot of laughter, so good to be around another badass hiker chick!

I wanted a short day, so I pulled off to find camp near Miller Lake, and she kept going. I’m overlooking the lake, and there is a smattering of rain beginning to fall. The mosquitos are getting bigger and hungrier, and I’m sure glad to have my bug condom (I hang it from the top of my tarp when camping, it’s perfect!)

Tomorrow I’ll get back in the thick of the Winds and do what I do best, head north!